Multisample notes: C, E and G# (except on SlapBass multisample, which is all notes)
KIT A
As with most of the drum and percussion samples in these kits a swing quantise was applied (in Cubase it was all around 50%). As is the way with the RnB type styles the drums have very short release times and no reverb - dry and tight like a........ As with all the other kits the drums come in loops and their original hits. The bass is a softsynth patch with a whole load of tweakage - part of the hard transient of each note is created by overdriving a software limiter. This kit was made entirely from softsynth tweakery - i.e. the organ and the lead synth. The percussion is made of samples made with a Roland S-100 modular analogue synth, which are included in the 'Hits' folder for percussion.
KIT B
The drums here are at a much slower tempo (it's at 95bpm, THE hip-hop tempo) and so have a little more decay to them, but that is still slightly truncated to fit in with the vibe of these kits. The bass is another softsynth with some warming distortion created by overloading more software plugins (I think it was a multiband compression plugin). The guitar is 'real' - i.e. we used a Parker Fly guitar through a Fender Twin amp with a standard Dunlop CryBaby wah-wah pedal. We have included percussive wah-wah chops ('Wucka') as well as the key varied guitar lines. The horn lines were made with the CM horn patches for DS404 from a number of issues past - just sequenced them up (trombone and two trumpets) and put through a convolution reverb. The percussion loops are made from real percussion samples, which are included in the hits folder of Kit C. We added a little phsing to give them some extra flavour.
KIT C
Electro drums with a little delay and old-skool bass set the backing for this kit. We have included some acoustic guitar (a Takemine miked up and put through a little reverb) lines to play counter to the obviously layered string patches. The electro drums are countered by the relatively 'real' percussion loops (i.e. sampled real sounds sequenced).
KIT D
The drums samples are pitched up real drum samples with a lot of the decay rolled off to get them extra tight sounding. We have made two basses for this kit - the synth based 'Fizzbass' and the real-life Slapbass (a DI'ed Musicman Stingray with a little Mutron III envelope filter mixed), so there's plenty to get those beats to work on. The Slapbass multisamples feature both the thumb strike and the finger pop of the strings. The pops start higher and finish higher than the thumb samples as it's rare to thumb up high of pop down low. The clavinet was recorded with some Mutron mixed in too to keep up with the bass. The lead synth (aptly called 'Quackers') is a monosynth patch tweaked up to cut through any mix.
